Haley-copter
by DiamondPheonix12
Summary: The gang meet Two-bit's little sister. She's not quite what they expected. - Takes place two years after the movie/book.


The first time they meet her, she's raging and carries stormclouds in her small body.

The day starts out normally enough, everyone eating Soda's cake and chatting. Two-bit is eyeing Steve's plate that holds a half finished slice of cake as he holds his own empty plate. He sets his plate down on the counter and is moving towards Steve, who holds his plate a little closer to his chest, watching Two-bit approach with wariness.

Two-bit is known to take everyone else's food if they're not careful enough.

It's only 9 o'clock, a warm Saturday when nothing's really happening. They're content with spending a day lazing around with each other.

When it happens, Steve his spinning around, trying to hold his plate away from Two-bit, who tries to reach around and snatch it from Steve's grasp. Sodapop and Ponyboy watch on in amusement and Darry shakes his head as he reads the newspaper. It's then that the door slams open, banging loudly against the wall and making everyone jump. They don't have much time to do anything else as a nine year old girl with brown hair braided down her back stomps in, the fire of an unholy rage in her eyes.

Two-bit backs away from Steve, paling slightly and grins sheepishly as he holds his hands up in a placating manner.

"You," she hisses out furiously, pointing at Two-bit. He takes another step back as she stalks forward. "You are the worst."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he says, looking at the others who stare dumbfounded at the girl who looked ready to fight Two-bit and send him to an early grave.

"You know what I'm talking about!" she explodes. "That was mine! You can't just take my food all the time! I was going to eat that! You know it's my favorite food!"

Two-bit has a hilariously offended look on his face as he says, "You have no proof that I ate it!"

"I saw you walk out of the house eating it, you can't hide the truth from me."

"I didn't -!" Two-bit doesn't get a chance to deny his actions, as the girl tackled him, sending the two crashing onto the floor. Two-bit struggles a little, but not as much as he would in any other fight, and looks faintly amused and terrified at the same time. It was then that Darry came up to them, still looking confused, but tries to pry the little girl off of Two-bit.

She holds on with all her might and kicks at him. Darry was forced to move back as the girl turned her attention on Two-bit again and grabbed the fabric of his shirt in her fists, then shook him violently.

"Geez," Two-bit gasped out, "how are you this strong? You're nine."

"Because I have to deal with you on a daily basis," she spits out.

Steve shares a look with Sodapop at the words, a certain look that says, "?" in a way words can't. Ponyboy is just as lost, but he goes back to eating his cake anyways.

The girl stopped shaking Two-bit, and glared down at him as she venomously hissed, "Stop stealing my food or I will end you, Two-bit."

Two-bit grins. "No promises. And eat your food faster or I'll eat it." The girl looked ready to punch him but settled for shaking him again. Two-bit brought his hands up and poked her sides, causing her to squeal and jump off him. She took a few steps back from him, glaring as she brushed dust off of her overalls. Two-bit stood and smoothed his shirt out.

She seemed to have calmed down, so Darry went to read his paper again, evidently deciding that he'd had enough of them. The girl paid no attention to him or anyone else in the room as she began rummaging through the large pocket on the front of her overalls. After a few moments, she pulled out a crumpled paper and shoved it at Two-bit.

He blinked down at it before grabbing it and looking over it.

"Also, Mom wants you to get those today."

"Sure thing, Haley-copter."

"And get money from Mom before you go. She doesn't want you to steal the groceries."

Two-bit frowned. "But that takes all the fun out of it!"  
The girl ("Haley-copter?" Ponyboy whispered to Sodapop confusion) sighed. "These are for groceries, they're not supposed to be fun. But if you can steal some gummy worms for me, I'll forgive you for stealing my cookies."

"Done."

With that, Haley-copter (again, Steve looked at Sodapop with the '?' expression) nodded and walked out the house, paying no mind to the eyes that followed her movements. The door slammed shut again, and Two-bit pocketed the paper before reaching for Steve's cake again.

"Hey!" Steve cried, holding the cake away from Two-bit's reaching hands.

"So," Sodapop cut in, stepping between the two, "who was that?"

Two-bit shrugged. "Just my little sister Haley."

"Oh. Okay."

They looked at each other for a moment and decided that it would be best to get on with the day and put this to the backs of their minds. It was, after all, just another strange sibling relationship.

* * *

The next time they see her, it's not as dramatic or strange as the first time. No, the second time was fairly normal. Although, they expected it from Two-bit, not a nine year old girl, but they were related so it wasn't much of a surprise.

Two-bit is stupidly proud of his little sister. He's also trying to take some of the candy she stole.

They saw her in the store half an hour earlier, and, with Two-Bit's insistence, they go in as well. The clerk looks at them suspiciously, as anyone would do when a group of greasers walk into a store, but only regarded them for a moment before going back to the magazine he was reading. Two-bit had already pulled ahead of the others, looking down the aisles for Haley. He manages to find her in the candy aisles and walks to her quickly.

"Haley!" he calls out in greeting once he reaches her, ruffling the top of her head as she glares at him and ducks away from his hand.

"What are you doing here?" she asks, turning her attention back to the candy on the shelves. She's eying some double honey-filled candies as she speaks, glancing at Two-bit occasionally.

Two-bit puts his arm on her head and leans his weight against it, using her arm like an armrest. She huffs, but doesn't bother moving. "I saw you walk in and decided to join you," he says as he looks over all the available candies. His hands itch to grab some Astropops, but he knows he should set a somewhat good example for his little sister.

The others had reached the two siblings now, having leisurely strolled down the aisles, taking note of all the types of candy there.

"What's up, Haley?" Ponyboy called out, raising a hand in greeting. Haley gave a small wave back.

Two-bit looked over to the others before grabbing a Lemonhead and screwing up his face in disgust. "I dunno why people like these, they're so sour." He put it back on the shelf before freezing and turning his head to stare at Haley, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What," she asked flatly upon seeing him stare at her.

"Did Mom give you money to buy candy?"

Haley froze, then scowled and asked, "What's it to you?"

"I just wanna know."

She didn't say anything else and glared at the shelves. Sodapop looked at the two siblings, then at Steve, who shrugged.

"Um, if you don't have any money, I could buy the candy for you," he said, a little hesitantly, to Haley. She immediately shook her head, bangs swinging into her eyes. She huffed and pushed them back behind her eye before stepping away from Two-bit, making him drop his arm suddenly and stumble a little, almost crashing into the shelf.

That got a laugh out of the others and a satisfied grin from Haley as Two-bit's face was covered in an embarrassed flush.

"Hey Two-bit," Haley suddenly said, causing Two-bit to straighten up and look at her curiously. "Do you think you can find me some new hair ties? I only have two left."

He frowned. "Didn't you get a pack of fifty a few weeks ago?"

"They broke."

He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "All of them?"

"All but two. Didn't you hear me?" Haley rolled her eyes, adding emphasis to her words. "Can you go get them for me?"

"But-"

"Please?" She pouted, eyes wide, doing a terribly hard to resist puppy-dog face. Even Darry felt the need to go find Haley some hair ties. It was enough to make Two-bit sigh in defeat and nod. Haley immediately brightened.

"Great!" she said, and spun Two-bit around, pushing him forward and forcing the others to scatter as to not be plowed over by Two-bit. "Now go!" He left the aisles with a single suspicious backwards glance.

Haley let out a breath and walked back to where she was originally standing when they found her. She cast a glance at the others, but decided to ignore them for the time being. She pulled a bag the size of her hand out of the front of her overalls and grabbed some double honey-filled candies. cherry sours, sour apple flipsticks, and sugar daddies and shoved them into her bag.

The others watched her in shock. Ponyboy was the first to speak. "Haley are you steal-?!" He was cut off by her loud shushing. She quickly shoved the bag into her pocket again and began walking down the aisles. As she passed the group by, she grabbed Ponyboy's and Steve's wrists, dragging them along behind her.

"You'll be around me when I leave. Act like you came in to drag me home, okay? And don't mention this to anyone." The threat in her voice was clear. Though they didn't know what they had to be afraid of, the two found themselves nodding to her when she turned around to glare at them. Sodapop walked behind them with his hands shoved into his pockets, but froze when she turned her glare to him. "And you," she said, pointing at Sodapop, "are going to get Two-bit. And make sure he has some hair ties."

"Do you even need more hair ties?" Sodapop asked without moving.

"No, but I can to have a valid reason for coming here and Two-bit can vouch for me. Now go get him!" Sodapop left the aisle to find Two-bit, thinking that his little sister was had an oddly commanding voice for a nine year old, and was far more terrifying than she should have been.

Haley gave a satisfied nod, and continued her walk down the aisle. She stopped briefly at the end of it and grabbed some packages of grape Now and Later. She looked down at her already filled pocket, frowned, then handed half of the packages to Ponyboy and the other half to Steve.

"Hide those," she ordered. They quickly hid the packages in their pockets and jackets. She then forced Darry to walk in front of them, so she was in between all of them and could easily hide her slightly bulging pocket. With that, they walked out of the store, the clerk glancing at them once before shaking his head and turning a page in his magazine.

Two-bit and Sodapop caught up to them as they were halfway down the street from the store. Haley was already munching on her sugar daddies and held some cherry sours in her hand. Two-bit ran in front of the small group and stopped them. He took a moment to regain his breath before looking up to see Haley innocently eating her candy.

For a moment, he looked shocked. Then he broke into a large grin and dragged her into a one armed hug, pressing her against his side.

"I'm so proud!" he cried out, pretending to wipe tears away, "Haley-copter is growing up! Stealing things so professionally!"

She whacked him, a well aimed fist to his bellybutton that made him double over slightly, and stepped away from him. "Be quiet, you're gonna get us unwanted attention."

Two-bit nodded, and pretended to wipe away a single tear before whispering, "So proud."

Haley rolled her eyes before tapping Darry's arm, holding her hand above her head to offer him some cherry sours. He blinked and stared down at the small hand for a moment before picking up two and smiling down at Haley. "Thanks, Haley."

She shrugged and offered candy to the rest of the group as well. Except for Two-bit who clutched his heart and let out an offended gasp. Darry cuffed the back of his head in amusement, and Two-bit ducked his head with a smile, nudging Darry with his shoulder. He shook his head with a small grin before shoving Two-bit forwards.

Two-bit stumbled for a moment before righting himself and going over to Haley, snatching a cherry sour from her hand. He looked at it for a moment before dropping it back into her hand with a look of disgust.

"Who likes sour things?!" he cried, brushing his hands on his shirt to get all the cherry sour off his hands. Haley pulled out another sugar daddy and held it out to him. Two-bit grabbed it and ripped the wrapper off, shoving it into his mouth quickly. He hummed his approval and leaned against Steve, one elbow on the other boy's shoulder. They all spent a moment in silence, savouring the sweets Haley stole.

"So," said Two-bit, breaking the silence as he usually did, "I'm still pretty shocked. Since when did you steal things Haley-copter? That's my job."

She shrugged. "I wanted candy and didn't want to ask Mom since she already has a hard time getting enough money for dinner every week." She looked up at him, suddenly worried. "You won't tell her right?"

"Well…" Two-bit drew out the word, a teasing smile spreading across his face.

Haley hit his arm. "Two-bit!"  
"I can be convinced with some more candy."

He got a handful of candy with only some grumbling from Haley. The rest of the gang got some more from Haley with a hand shoved towards them and silence. Though things were a little awkward with Haley around, since only Two-bit really knew her, it was a pretty good afternoon. A scrap with some Socs later in the evening didn't dampen the sweetness of the candy at all.

* * *

They got used to her the third time they see her. This time, Two-bit brought her along since their mom was busy and no one else was around to look after Haley.

"So, we're babysitting her," Sodapop says.

"Basically," Two-bit confirms with a shrug, Haley staring down at the floor behind him. It's 8 o'clock then, on a Sunday morning that they know they won't spend in church. Church wasn't really the place for greasers, after all. But they were happy to spend it eating Sodapop's chocolate cake and joking around with each other.

They just had to get used to Haley being there, not attacking Two-bit for eating her cookies.

Sodapop makes sure she gets a particularly thick slice of cake. When Two-bit complains, he just winks and says, "Gotta make sure the first slice is the best." Two-bit has to agree to that. They both grin at Haley's pleasantly surprised hum at her first bite.

"Good?" Sodapop asks. She nods and ducks her head down to continue eating, occasionally looking up to make sure Two-bit wasn't going to try and steal her cake. She finishes quickly and puts her plate on the counter, standing awkwardly until Two-bit tells her to go watch some cartoons. She nods again and walks out of the kitchen quietly.

For a moment, Haley stands in front of the T.V., not knowing what to do before sitting on the floor, back against the couch.

Her silence and the unsureness of her actions is enough to make Sodapop concerned.

"Is Haley okay?" he asks, lowering his voice and leaning towards Two-bit.

"Yeah, she's just kinda awkward around you guys," he says, "doesn't really know how to act around you, ya know?"

Sodapop frowns as he says, "She knows us though. And she wasn't awkward with us when she stole all that candy."

"That may be true, but then she was focused on something and didn't really talk much to you guys, right?"

"Yeah, but-"

"She didn't have to focus on you. Now she does and Haley isn't really that good around people she doesn't know."

The frown doesn't leave Sodapop's face, but he leans back and finishes his slice of cake, glancing over to the T.V. that he knows Haley is in front of.

"She seemed pretty comfortable around us at the store," Sodapop says suddenly, "ordered us around too."

Two-bit didn't look very surprised. "Haley wanted to get something done, so she used you guys to help her. 'Sides, she didn't know you so she didn't mind ordering you around." He paused and set his plate down, "I'm sure that she wouldn't do that now though. She's out of her element here and isn't comfortable enough with any of you to talk to you, much less order you around."

He stood up and held out a hand for Sodapop's plate. Once the plate was in hand, Two-bit set it down on the counter next to his and Haley's, then gestured for Sodapop to stand up. He guides Sodapop out the room, saying, "I still don't know why you let her order you around like that."

"She's your little sister and we didn't want to hurt her feelings!"

"Haley can handle it. She lives with me, after all."

Sodapop laughed, and clapped Ponyboy's shoulder as he passed. "Go keep Haley company," he told Ponyboy before heading out with Two-bit to help Steve fix up some cars.

They were gone before Ponyboy had a chance to protest, so he stared after them, sighed, and went to join Haley in watching cartoons.

She looked up briefly when he walked over to her, but fixed her attention to the T.V. once she saw him. Ponyboy stood for a moment before dropping to sit on the floor next to her. They watched cartoons together for a few minutes, but it was clear that neither was paying attention to what was happening on the screen with Haley picking at some string coming out of her sleeve and Ponyboy looking around the room.

Unable to take the silence, even though the T.V. was on and filled the room with some noise, Ponyboy cleared his throat. Haley's eyes slid over to him, then looked away.

"So," he began, "how's school?" He cringed at the terrible conversation starter, but it got Haley to look at him for more than a second, so he counted it as a win.

"Um… good?" Her voice was hesitant, but she relaxed somewhat, her tense shoulders falling. At least he was getting somewhere, Ponyboy told himself.

He searched for something else to say. "Classes are good?" And cringed again. Since when was having a conversation with a nine year old so hard?

"They're fine," Haley said, voice sounding far too bitter for any nine year old to be fine. "Why do you care anyways? I'm seven years younger than you, it doesn't matter to you." She ended quietly, her venom fading as she drew her knees up to her chest.

'Did I fuck up?' Ponyboy thought to himself in a panic, 'I think I fucked up.'

He cleared his throat again. "Uh… is anything going on that you wanna talk about? 'Cause you don't really sound fine."

Haley's only answer was a glare.

"Seriously, if something's wrong, you can tell me. Or any of us."

"It doesn't matter."

"If it's upsetting you then it does. You're Two-bit's little sis, so we gotta look out for you too."

Haley ducked her head down, hid her face against her jean clad knees, and took a large, shuddering breath. It sounded like she was going to cry.

The only thing going through Ponyboy's mind was, '?' followed by a 'Is she crying?' and a 'Fuckfuckfuck what do I do?!'

Haley's voice got him to stop focussing on the blind panic rising in him as she said, "I hate school." Her words were somewhat muffled, but he was able to understand what she was saying. So she clearly wasn't fine, like he originally thought.

"So what's uh… what's wrong with school?" he asked, wondering how he could comfort her. Would she even need comforting? Maybe he was blowing this way out of proportion. Maybe he wasn't. He didn't know how to comfort kids. He's barely spent any time around kids! Ponyboy was not ready for this at all.

After taking a deep breath, Haley lifted her head and stared at the T.V., refusing to look at Ponyboy. "I hate everyone there."

"Why?"

"They all make fun of me and push me around and I hate it! I hate that they make me wanna cry and yell and that they're always saying that Dad ran out on us because of me! Because I'm a mistake and Dad didn't want me so he left." She turned her head to look at Ponyboy so suddenly, Ponyboy flinched and fell back slightly. It was only his hand on the ground that kept him from falling over completely.

"I hate him!" she cried out, "I hate Dad! Why did he leave us?! Were we not enough for him?! Did he hate me so much that he packed his things and left?!" Haley paused for a breath, angrily wiping away the tears that had sprung up. "I hate him so much! He made Mom cry and Two-bit sad and made all the kids at school make fun of me!" She broke off in a whimper. "I wish he wasn't my dad."

Ponyboy stared down at her, sad and surprised, not expecting her to say all that. Her loud outburst had also attracted Darry's attention, who left his room to see what was happening. He took a moment to process Ponyboy's panicked, dismayed expression and Haley's shaking shoulders before crossing the room and crouching down in front of them.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concern clear in his eyes.

"I hate him," is all Haley whispered in response. Darry turned to Ponyboy.

"Kids at her school are teasing her 'cause her dad ran out on her and she's really hurt about it," Ponyboy explained. "School's pretty hard on her right now."

Darry nodded and placed a hand on Haley's shoulder, making her look up at him. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair before finding the right words.

"Listen, Haley," he began, "It's not your fault that your dad ran off or that some kids are messing with you for it. I know it's gotta be hard for you, but if you ever need one of us to take care of those kids, just tell us, 'kay? We're here for you, and we'll help you best we can."

Haley furiously scrubbed at her eyes. "I can handle it," she said, but her voice was shaking too much for either of the Curtis brothers to believe her.

"Not if means you're crying 'cause these kids are messing with you."

Ponyboy broke in, saying, "It's alright to ask for help, ya know."

Darry nodded. "That's right, you don't have to be afraid of asking for help. You're nine and you have your whole life ahead of you. Don't let some kids ruin things for you, 'kay? And remember that you can come to any of us for anything."

She sniffed, and looked up at Darry. "Promise?" she asked weakly.

"Promise," both Darry and Ponyboy said.

Ponyboy stood, and waved off Darry's questioning look. He went to the kitchen and rummaged around the cupboards for a minute before pulling out some of his favorite butterscotch candies. He picked out five and went back to Haley, holding out the candies to her. Hesitantly, she took one.

If anyone needed something sweet, it was Haley. And that was something Ponyboy knew how to work with (it's better than conversations about school, too).

They spent a good portion of the afternoon watching cartoons and movies after that. It was safe to say that Haley was comfortable with them, and vice versa. Two-bit wouldn't stop grinning when he saw them curled up on the couch eating butterscotch candies. Or when he stole one from Darry, who rolled his eyes good naturedly with an exaggerated huff of frustration.

As far as babysitting went, it wasn't so bad.

* * *

 **A/N: im sorry but its a gift for my friend i promise i'll go back to my other stories okay bye**


End file.
